Friday, November 08, 2013

Please note the bastards didn't just want to get rid of SYG:One particularly awkward part of the testimony involved the
revelation that the proposed bill would have the effect not only of
repealing Stand-Your-Ground out in public but also the Castle Doctrine
in one’s home. The bill sponsor Rep. Williams acknowledged this to be
the case, but suggested it was a “glitch” that could be fixed later.
Even more awkward was when Rep. Williams was questioned on various
aspects of Florida’s self-defense law (section 776), and clearly had no
idea what the law was.

Finally, and perhaps most telling, Williams closing arguments of the
night focused not on Stand-Your-Ground at all, but on the self-defense
immunity provisions of the law. The anti-self-defense crowd really,
REALLY hates self-defense immunity.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

No, I do NOT need to bring the Roger 'toon back out. Repairs on a carport for one thing, which I will hopefully accomplish without further loss of blood or movement.

By the way, for future reference: those Skele-Toes shoes I like? On a shingle roof they have approximately the same traction as leather soles on a newly-waxed floor(dammit, I said no new injuries, shut up).

Also, the store-brand chain lube from Cycle Gear works wonderfully on the joints of a folding ladder.

Ayoob asked for comments on people reporting a friend/relative/someone at school who may be a threat, and this in the comments is dead-on:...The drug war has driven a wedge between law enforcement and the
general public. The war mentality has bleed over from drug enforcement
to taint other forms of policing. There are now law enforcement officers who claim that American cops
face the same dangers on patrol as our soldiers do in Afghanistan. [1]

There was recently a SWAT style raid of an animal clinic. [2] When
asked why the raid was conducted in that style, a supervisor explained
that they just go ahead and kick in doors in drugs cases, so why should
they do anything differently here.*

Given this militarization of police forces, I think that some people
are afraid to reach out to law enforcement when a loved one is having
mental issues due to a fear that the first response to such an issue
will be violent.
Exactly. There's a big difference between thinking "If I call the police/sheriff, someone'll come talk to him and look into things" and "Well shit, if I call the cops they're likely to kick the doors in and kill somebody."

A while back a lady wrote this fine piece, and caught eight levels of hell for 'blaming the victims', 'excusing men of guilt', etc. ad Bullshit. Personally I thought it was good advice to tell a girl heading off to college "It's not a good idea to get fall-on-your-ass drunk at parties. ANY parties. Especially to do it regularly", and said so on Bookface.

Guess what?

I know it classes me(to the 'enlightened') as a knuckle-dragging misogynist rape-culture apologist, but I'll say it again: you have a friend/relative who's heading off to college? TELL THEM THAT. Female and male both.

One of the things that pisses me off about this: If you announced you told that piece of advice to every young male you knew, before they headed to college, a lot/most of the same people screaming 'VICTIM BLAMING!' about this would probably congratulate you(the others would accuse you of 'trying to keep them from enjoying the College Experience', which proves they're friggin' idiots and to be ignored). And if a guy got drunk as hell and got in some kind of trouble, and you pointed that out to others as a fine bad example, they'd either agree, no cries of VB would be heard. Some would even announce he deserved the trouble for being stupid.

But give girls the same advice?

Also proving I don't have the proper-for-modern-life mindset, I think that '20 percent of college women are sexually assaulted' figure is bullshit. Unless you include in that number females waking up and realizing "I slept with HIM?" or deciding later "We were both drunk, and I climbed on him, but that doesn't change that HE ASSAULTED ME!" and other such crap(I've said that, too; more of the same 'You don't care about women/rape/why don't you teach your sons not to rape!' garbage in return).

More on that "People who should never have been allowed to carry a badge" story the other day:Eckert was sent a $6,000 bill for the medical procedures he involuntarily underwent, his lawyer says.
At the end of the story:Kennedy filed a motion for summary judgment Oct. 24, asking the court to
rule on the facts of the case, which she says are not disputed. She
says defendants responded by expressing interest in resolving the case
outside of court.
Yeah, I'll bet they'd LOVE to keep this from getting in front of a jury.

A: Yes, Obamacare will screw with employer-provided insurance, too.
B: Remember, this was said by the same asshole now insisting that, for instance, men should have to pay for maternity coverage on themselves:In 2009, Mr. Obama explained to NPR,
"I'm on record as saying that taxing 'Cadillac' plans that don't make
people healthier, but just take more money out of their pockets because
they're paying more for insurance than they need to, that's actually a
good idea and that helps bend the cost curve. That helps to reduce the
cost of health care over the long term. I think that's a smart thing to
do."

In October of last year, Timothy Young was pulled over for failing to
signal a turn. After a drug-sniffing dog indicated that Young might be
carrying drugs, police obtained a warrant and took him to Gila Regional
Medical Center in Silver City. There, doctors administered anal exams,
including enemas, X-rays and a colonoscopy.

And get this:There is no indication that the same officers were involved in both
cases. What is clear, however, is that the same drug-sniffing dog was
used both times.

The dog’s name is Leo, and according to KOB-TV 4, he is no longer
licensed by the state of New Mexico to assist police in drug searches.
Drug-sniffing dogs must be re-certified each year; Leo’s license expired
in April of 2012, months before the Young and Eckert incidents.
Gee, I wonder why they might be using an uncertified dog for this work, hmmm?

In Colorado, the leftists trying to keep Hudak in office are getting both more violent and downright slanderous.At another site however, the Brownies were noticeably more proactive,
jumping out into traffic, shouting into peoples windows, and getting in
the faces of those attempting to sign a petition. The police were called
and the harassment ended. Why are anti-gun people so violent?

Saw one of the door hangers distributed by the Hudak people. Very
professionally written and printed, the sort of thing the government
might put out to warn the citizens of the presence of a rampaging rabid
werewolf. Petition circulators were described as either identity thieves
or sex offenders. Shades of the land shark skit from SNL. I'll try to
get one to put up here in the next day or two.

Mr. Huffman ran across a fine example of a politically-correct bigot and general "I don't care about that rule of law or individual rights shit" dirtbag going by The Coquette who writes an advice column, and he engaged her on the matter. She proceeded to prove exactly what she is.

Then some of her sympathizers went over to Joe's to lecture on what nasty people we are, putting individual rights and freedom above what they consider 'the greater good'.

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Along similar lines, “Spandan C” argued on a progressive blog that it was good to force men to pay for maternity benefits that they would never need, because “they are the ones that get women pregnant, and therefore should have to pay part of the cost.”..........
Just digest that for a minute. Think about the level of stupid involved. I'm asking you to, because this is making my head hurt.

check your bananas.Consi Taylor, 29, of London, told The Sun that she saw “funny looking spots” on her banana that she first thought was only mold.“[B]ut when I had a closer look I saw some funny looking spots…and was horrified to see they were spiders. They were hatching out on the table, scurrying around on my carpet,” she said.To make matters worse, she would later discover that the dozens of spiders were Brazilian wandering spiders, or banana spiders — and they are highly venomous.
Couple of years back they found an adult in some bananas in a store in Germany, and in 2009 they found one in Tulsa; I can think of visitors from Brazil I'd much rather see

So showing ID to vote is a horrible imposition, but Schumer & Co. want you to have to show ID to buy a phone...Schumer disagreed, saying the identity of prepaid cell purchasers would be kept private by phone companies in the same way the identities of regular cell and landline phone owners are protected."

Excuse me, but I had to laugh hysterically; yeah, just like the NSA won't listen to our calls or read our e-mail...
And the standard excuse for screwing with privacy just a little bit more: "We are living in a time when unfortunately our public safety rquires small gives by everyone," Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said.
Screw you, Nelson.

So, BATFEIEIO suffers from
low morale,
bad leadership,
abuse of agents,
abuse of authority,
a culture of violations of law,
illegal attacks on whistleblowers,
supervisors engaging in illegal activities(Gunwalker, perjury, etc.),
And the answer to raising morale?
.
.
.Put a friggin' store with ATF trinkets in the DC headquarters...

Oh, Obama is now trying to cover lying(repeated, deliberately, with malice) with another lie: ...what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.
That is such a flat, open, public, deliberate lie I'm kind of surprised that even Obama can look anyone in the eye and speak it.

Because that black guy was obviously some kind of racist; he's a Republican, after all.

Well, according to this the Obama team is worried about what happens if they actually get the website working and lots more people find out how badly they're going to get screwed by Obamacare. The fun just keeps coming, doesn't it?

Speaking of which, I wonder what the people always whining about Stupid Party and crony capitalism will think of the bailouts for insurance companies in Dear Leader's plan?

I think this is worth noting a again: Parent has a problem with kids' school assignment, contacts teacher about it. And thenAfter contacting his daughter’s teacher, Barry heard back from the
school’s principal. After a discussion, a friend of Barry’s relayed a
voicemail she received from another teacher named Cydnee Cohen.

Cohen, who is also the president of the local chapter of the
teacher’s union — the East Pembrook Education Association, which is part
of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) — said on the
voicemail, “We’re having some problems with a parent in our school
district and on his [Facebook] page you are one of his friends … but I
would like to know, some of it seems like he is a neo-Nazi.”

Cohen then says, “Maybe he is Jewish, I don’t know.”

After it was confirmed that Barry is, in fact, Jewish, Cohen sent
text messages to the mutual friend which read “he went to bishop
mcdevitt!!” and “he is tea party right wing!” Bishop McDevitt is a
nearby private Catholic high school.
Wonderful sort to be teaching kids, isn't she?

how very progressive of them.The University of Kentucky has a website
that students can use to rat on fellow students who violate the
university’s no tobacco policy because, as the school says, “compliance
is everyone’s business.” They can confidentially report the date and
time of day a violation occurred and a description of the student.
Moreover, the school has “ambassadors”commissars(there, fixed it) who “inform” students, staff, and
visitors of the school’s policy.

That "The people losing their policies, those policies were terrible!" argument is just as bullshit as Obama saying "You will be able to keep your policy!"

“New product lets sportsmen know when drones are near,” a recent Outdoor
Hub headline proclaimed. “Technology firm DroneShield has created a
device that is capable of detecting nearby unmanned aerial vehicles,
also known as drones.”

Daughter was at a steampunk convention this weekend. also at the location: "There was a full-blown Toddlers and Tiaras style pageant going on at the hotel during the convention. There were even at least two people who have actually been featured on that show there. It was...disturbing. There was a bikini competition, apparently. For girls under 10. Down to literal toddlers...like barely old enough to walk, in bikinis."
There are parents out there who could do with a serious series of kicks in the ass.
Or a really severe beating with a clue bat.

If you hadn't heard about this, here's the story.My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying
life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics. For almost
seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a
five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a
determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run
out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been
canceled effective Dec. 31.

More on what violations of law the IRS has been up to, and their- and the Justice Department- attempts to ignore it. Minimize it. Fail to bring the guilty to justice.For the IRS to function effectively, it needs both a reasonable budget
and to be apolitical. It’s vital that the Department of Justice go
after individuals who turn the IRS into a political organization from an
apolitical one. Yet the current Administration apparently doesn’t see
the urgency in this issue. That’s a huge mistake, and one that will
definitely come back to haunt them and all Americans. We need a well
functioning IRS…and given what the Administration is doing (and not doing), it’s very likely the budget for the IRS will continue to shrink.
Well, yeah; when they can't be trusted not to abuse their position, why would you want to give them more money to do it with?

Even for Feinstein, this is one of the most idiotic 'excuses/explanations' for serial lying I've ever seen.

As fine an example of "The power to tax is the power to destroy" combined with standard-issue dumbass. From the same kind of idiots who'll be controlling health care.

Speaking of Feinstein, the M&P is apparently her new talking point.And JJ MacNab would be advised to find out what the hell she's talking about before she starts typing. And Forbes would be advised to see that she does so.

Sunday, November 03, 2013

I can't quite believe that I've just sat through ten minutes of BBC
television in which British journalists Owen Jones and Zoe Williams have defended Karl Marx as the prophet of the End of Capitalism.
Unbelievable because I had thought Marxism was over with the fall of the
Berlin Wall – when we discovered that socialism was one part bloodshed,
one part farce. But unbelievable also because you'd have to be a pretty
lacking in moral sensitivity to defend a thinker whose work sent
millions of people to an early grave.
But they all died to serve The Collective, so it's all good, right?

His view that all human relations are shaped by economics and that
everything we do is measured in purely material terms reduced the
individual to a pawn in a historic war between competing classes. You're
not a person – you're either an exploiter or an alienated peasant. At
least the crowned tyrants who preceded him had some sense of the value
of the human soul; at least they saw their power as limited by God,
tradition and a passing respect for conscience. After Marx, all these
things stood in the way of progress and could be brushed aside with the
swish of a signature on a death list. Throw into the mix Karl's belief
that the working-class could not lose – historical determinism – and you
get the kind of fanatical, anti-human view of life that would end
inevitably in gulags. "To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no
loss," said the teenage vanguard of the Cambodian communists. Compelling
logic to the intellectually unformed.
Insty keeps pointing out that defenders of and apologists for communism are just as disgusting as defenders of and apologists for the nazis; we need to keep pointing that out to the idiots.

Obama says he's 'really good at killing people'. Yeah, like "I got bin Laden!" The troops, the techs, the intel, they're nothing; HE'S it because "It's ALL about ME!"
Especially when you consider, from what we've found out, the chickenshit refused to ok the bin Laden mission, what, twice?, before some adults told Jarrett to shut up and pushed it through.

On the brass cleaning front, after it dried looked it over, and the stuff didn't strip off every trace of the lube, only about 85-90% of it. Which is a lot better than soap & water did. I think using a little more degreaser, or a little more time, would've gotten just about all of it.

I've been using Lee case lube for resizing*, and the usual process after to remove it has been
Put in bottle with soapy water.
Shake.
Leave a while.
Shake.
Drain, rinse, drain.
Dry.
Tumble to get rid of what that doesn't remove.

Was starting to add water to clean off some cases that've been sitting in the bottle waiting, when what did my wandering eyes did appear but a bottle of the degreaser I use for all kinds of stuff.

Well, why not?

Put in enough water to cover the cases, added- I'd guess- about two ounces, shook it, let it sit a couple of minutes, shook again, drained enough to get a case out to examine. And it was CLEAN. So drained the rest and rinsed, and that stuff appears to have stripped every trace of lube off the cases. I've got them drying now, I think they're only going to need a few minutes tumbling to shine them a bit.

This was a lot faster, and should prevent the tumbler media being crudded up with lube. And I get the stuff at the dollar store(think Wally World carries it too).

*Can't find the post right now, but someone suggested putting some in a small pump-spray bottle, add alcohol, shake to dissolve, then spray to lube. It works.

insurance, required training, gun OWNERS registered, more taxes on firearms, but none of that counts as infringement! Oh no, I don't want to infringe on the right to arms!"
If you didn't have to register to comment, I'd think of a polite way to call 'BULLSHIT!', and send her Lawdog's post on 'just like cars'.

but I am, by the- well, make your choice: it's either "Don't give a shit" or "Utter ruthlessness in the pursuit of the Collective goal" of the people who want Obamacare to take over.

Short version, got into an argument with some people who either overlooked or refused to see the information about all the people losing their insurance because "Your plan doesn't have Obama's approval." Pointed that out, and ran into two things:
"It's the insurance companies fault, they're greedy!" or
"They can go on the ACA site and find better!"
NO recognition of, or worse, don't give a shit that lots of these people don't WANT 'better'; they want to keep the policy Obama promised them they could.
"That was a lousy policy, they need better!"What if they don't think it was lousy, and don't WANT 'better'?The answer boils down to "It's better for the collective. So screw anyone who doesn't like it."
Yeah, some people will love it; they'll get OPM to make Obamacare affordable, so screw everyone else. It's a big step toward total government control of health care, so it's worth all the misery and trouble.

I admit, I had no idea how ruthless these people I know are, so long as it's for 'a good cause'.

By the way, when you point out that if it's the insurance company lobbyists behind it all that means that Obama is bought & paid-for by them, they don't like that either.

The misguided Operation Fast and Furious,
in which agents in Phoenix were told to stand by while Mexican drug
cartel intermediaries bought weapons in local gun stores and smuggled
them across the border, largely resulted from management errors within
the bureau and the local U.S. attorney's office.

Ah, yes, the "botched operation." You know, the one that
Freedman at first studiously ignored and then, when it became
embarrassing, minimized. But there is also this interesting factoid:

There are many forces behind the agency's
second-class status. One is federal law enforcement competition, where
the agency has long struggled with the FBI, Drug Enforcement
Administration and others for dollars.

But a major factor is the political animosity generated by
enforcing gun laws. The NRA stands out as the single organization in or
out of government most intimately involved in shaping the bureau's
mission.

Jim Pasco, an ATF lobbyist on Capitol Hill in the 1980s and
'90s, recalls negotiating the agency's budget with his NRA counterpart,
Jim Baker.

"I'd say, 'I need 200 more agents, 100 more inspectors,' "
said Pasco, who added that he promised the new hires would stick to
chasing criminals with guns, not the gun owners and collectors who are
the bulwark of the NRA.

After that, he said, Baker "would sign off."

Baker, now the gun group's senior lobbyist, insists
that the NRA never had veto power over agency's budgets. "The contention
that somehow the NRA is responsible for the amount of money
appropriated or not appropriated for ATF is erroneous," he said.

Which is no denial of Pasco's contention. "Give us more
power and money and we promise we won't target law-abiding firearm
owners." Yeah, that's worked out real well over the past couple of
decades.

I read this promise that "the new hires would stick to
chasing criminals with guns" and immediately had this image form in my
head: "Little Jimmy" Vann and the anti-firearm zealots in the Chief
Counsel's Office are sitting in a meeting being briefed on next year's
budget by Pasco and laughing uproariously. "Little Jimmy" is saying
incredulously, "And he BOUGHT that?!? What an idiot!"

More evidence of symbiosis, if any were needed, between the gun cops and the Lairds of Fairfax.

There is mention of the anger at the early ATF outrages, but
no mention of the "go along get along" NRA leadership that gave the ATF
a pass until the movement led by Neal Knox swept them away. No mention
of the revanchist coup of the old guard that toppled Knox and led to
the regime of Wayne LaPierre and the Lairds of Fairfax. (See The Gun Rights War.)
No mention that the struggle for the soul of the NRA continues to this
day with a board badly split between principle and appeasement. But
then that wouldn't fit Freedman's meme.

Speaking of stupid, found this linked at Drudge:FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat
delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not
accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.
Yeah, that'll work well.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.